Sharing Stories We believe that the stories we share reflect the truths we live by. We are committed to creating spaces to listen and share stories so that these truths can continue to inform and reshape our cultural narrative.
Cultural Specificity We believe that the Black cultural and spiritual traditions of the Arkansas Delta region hold within them the capacity for transformative storytelling, radical imagination and healing. Our work is to lift and expand the capacities of Black local cultural traditions while interrogating and holding the specificity of our own cultural lenses and traditions.
Culturally Specific Histories We recognize that there are many culturally specific forms of collecting history. We recognize that history is fundamental to culture and that cultures have been systematically weakened and destroyed when their forms of collecting history are delegitimized. We are committed to practicing culturally specific traditions of collecting and sharing history..
Moral Fundraising and Fund Management As informed by our community partners, we want to invest in the economic betterment of the community through our cultural work. We are committed to raising funds from individuals and investors that are seeking economic justice and not the exploitation of peoples oppressed by poverty. We are committed to engaging in transparent conversation with our community partners about our budgets. Finally, we are striving to allocate at least 40% of our funds for our community partners and participants.
Transformative Justice We believe that mass incarceration is a direct descendant of chattel slavery. The incarceral state continues to deny our communities’ the right to self-determination. We believe that a transformation of all of our social systems must take place to justly hold all members of the beloved community.
Intergenerational Collaboration We are committed to organizing spaces that are intergenerational. We believe that transmission of Black local cultural traditions across generations is essential to the processes of self-determination, memory, and reflection.
Moral Imaginary We seek an expansive imaginary that builds bridges with our enemies; that imagines complex realities that go beyond dualism and polarity; that risks stepping into the mystery of the unknown that lies beyond the far too familiar landscape of violence.